You make smart choices for yourself in all areas of your life, not the least of which happens at the dinner table. You may have family members with allergies, heart disease or other special needs. You may be trying to lose weight. Food labels can help you make informed choices as part of your #CleanCouponing approach, because as much as you like saving money, you know the value of investing in good nutrition.

Could you imagine going on a diet without being able to find out how many calories, grams of sugar or trans fats are in certain foods? That’s what’s happening now with your right to know about GMOs.

Did you know that TODAY a movement is happening in Washington to deny your right to get accurate, complete food labeling at the grocery store? It’s dubbed the DARK Act or Deny Americans the Right to Know Act, but your elected representative may only know it as HR 1599, and it’s due for a vote. This video explains why you might want to know what’s in your food:

Not only has the Food and Drug Administration refused to label genetically engineered foods otherwise known as genetically modified foods or GMOs, even though they’re often treated with the glyphosate herbicide recognized by top scientists as probably linked to cancer; but the DARK Act legislation would deny states’ rights to require GMO labeling, even if the people of that state vote for it like they did in Vermont and some other states. If you eat any conventional processed foods at all, you are likely being exposed to pesticide residues and unknown health harms, according to modern science. So, the DARK Act would make it more difficult for you to make personal choices about the food you want to feed your family.

If you care about #CleanCouponing, truly knowing the quality of the food you choose for your family, you’ll want to get the most information you can from a food label. That means a NO vote on the DARK Act and a yes to authentic, mandatory, state-level GMO labeling.

Clean Couponing is about being frugal with more than money. If this month’s #CleanCouponing Twitter chat is about Earth Care, what would your shopping choices have to do with being frugal in this area?

I like to save money as much as the next person, and I also look for value in the quality of the food – for instance picking organically produced foods when I can, to protect my family’s health and to support farmers who are doing what’s right for our environment. I appreciate brands that are mindful about the packaging they use so it creates as little waste as possible.

If you’re frugal with health, you might want to know about the connection between health and clean air, a key component of the cleaner energy movement to stem climate change while building healthier communities.

If you’re frugal with pre-teen and teen values, you might want to ask teacher and author Katy Farber about the motivation behind her new book, The Order of the Trees, which she’ll be giving away during our chat.

Earth Care can also mean avoiding the greenwashing that is rampant in the market today. So, while this #CleanCouponing chat is not sponsored and not designed to sell you anything in particular, we may have room for some honest conversation about avoiding greenwashing. That, because if you are in #CleanCouponing mode, you have authentic values like caring for your family, being good stewards with the budget you have, and picking products that are useful, not wasteful.

Please join us on Twitter Thursday night, April 9, from 9 to 10 pm Eastern, and follow both @CleanCouponing and @FlourSackMama as well as our special guests @SierraMidTN and @Non_Toxic_Kids. Please use hashtag #CleanCouponing to join the conversation.

Here are a couple of suggested tweets you could use to tell your friends about our chat:

*The following is a sponsored post for #CleanCouponing Twitter party sponsor SOS From Texas. All opinions are my own.

Colorful t-shirts in all sizes, for all seasons, plus tiny baby-sized organic cotton creations fill the online catalog for SOS From Texas. Just when you might have given up on organic cotton as too rare, too expensive, or not-to-be-found in the USA, there it is. Would you believe I found some cute t-shirts on sale there for under $10?

Oldham Farm FamilyCourtesy: SOS From Texas

Today’s USA-made clothing creating fair wage jobs is also helping farm families like the Oldhams preserve their heritage. Gary Oldham says he comes from a family that was growing cotton in Texas a century ago. He has the photo to prove it. Oldham proudly continues the tradition with sustainable, organic growing methods like crop rotation, using beneficial insects, and avoiding toxic, persistent pesticides when he grows cotton.